Premise: In the near future an organization called the Electric Church offers everyone the opportunity to become immortal by placing their brains into robotic bodies -- as long as they join the church. Enter assassin-for-hire Avery... More »

Saturday, January 30, 2010

The screen rights to Jeff Somers' trilogy of sci-fi novels beginning with The Electric Church have gone to Sony Pictures. Mosaic Media Group is developing the first film, based on the Electric Church novel, although at this time the project is simply known as the Avery Cates Project (after the name of the novel's central character.) Jimmy Miller from Mosaic is producing with Diana Williams executive producing.

First published in 2007, The Electric Church is set in a dystopic near future where nations are governed by ruling council. A new religion called the Electric Church is sweeping the imagination of the populace, offering citizens the chance to live forever if they accept entry into the church by swapping their human bodies for robotic ones. Fearing that their influence over humanity is slipping, the council hires Avery Cates to assassinate the founder of the Electric Church and hopefully bring an end to its existence.

Screenwriter Trevor Sands (2002's Inside) has been hired to adapt the novel. The last project that Sands worked on was a new adaptation of Dan Simmons' Hyperion for Warner Bros. and director Scott Derrickson (The Day the Earth Stood Still).